hours later, the senate confirmed hagel, 58-41. mainly along party lines. for more we turn to mark thompson, "time" magazine's national security reporter. welcome back to the program. so after all the storm and the fury from republicans, enough of them voted to let this confirmation takes place. what was this all about? >> basically it was on valentine's day that the senate would not let this proceed to an up-or-down vote. instead basically the republicans were looking for something to derail the nomination so for 12 days the nation waited essentially leon panetta was running over to nato and back to his walnut farm. we really didn't have a true secretary of defense other than this lame duck. today finally the republicans decided, hey, we've waited this long. we can't wait any longer. the president does deserve an up-or-down vote on his candidates so they let it proceed. >> woodruff: meantime they sent a message. >> yeah, i mean it is a disconcerting message. we had the republican and the democratic whips talking about vote counts but, you know, foreign nat